"Ding!
Prey/Predator confirmed- Green Water Snake
Species- Nerodia cyclopion
Biomass- 130 micro units.
Spirit- 0.01
Karma- 1
Threat- Hehehe…what do you think?
Note- Use your tail, you fool!"
If it was at any other time, Anaxa would have first viciously cursed the system for its sassy remarks.
But now, he did not have the time. And least the system was merciful enough to send him this last second suggestion.
So being literally at death's door, Anaxa turned all his focus there, desperately trying to grasp what it actually meant.
"How do I use my tail? Fight with it? Do I stop and turn around? Use it like an oar and turn to the sides? Ahhh…"
Anaxa's mind rushed with every possibility, trying out every combination.
In the meantime, the gaping mouth of his attacker continued to become larger and larger, turning Anaxa's vision darker and darker, until it was within striking distance.
The green snake approached Anaxa a bit from the side in a zig-zag pattern, both as a means of propulsion as well as an evasive precaution against any bites or swipes Anaxa might give as a last ditch effort.
Then, the moment it got into position, the huge, slithering reptile lunged towards the back of Anaxa's neck with its wide jaws, wishing to snap his spine in a single bite.
Anaxa's blood ran cold… or perhaps more specifically 'colder', at the sight of that pair of huge, white fangs. Shimmering in the sunlight flitering through underwater, they glinted like the scythe of the grim reaper.
And right now, that 'scythe' was closing on him like lightning.
Yet, even when faced with such a terrifying situation, Anaxa was unable to consciously come to a decision- for his life, he could not figure out what the system meant and how to use the tail exactly.
His mind currently felt totally blank- caused by both the sheer shock of the ambush as well as the mortifying feeling of an imminent death.
"Am I going to die just like that? Am I going to face the angel of death again? Do I have to experience that pain for a second time?" He sobbed in his heart with a shivering quiver.
"No! No! I refuse! Dammit! I refuse! I will fight! Even if I have to die, I will die fighting."
Then a split second later Anaxa's tune suddenly changed completely.
His flight or fight response had kicked in and since it was not possible to flee, Anaxa decided to fight.
Like a drowning man clutching at straws, Anaxa thus willed his tail to move out of instinct.
And suddenly, his body twisted in a very unnatural way.
The strong, powerful thrust combined with the throwing pebble that he still had with him caused the tiny water dragon to veer towards a downward, lateral direction at a near impossible angle, and by the grace of the heavens, this abrupt vector change managed to at last save him.
The snake missed its attack by the skin of its teeth.
And this was not simply a metaphor.
Anaxa literally felt the lower jaw of the snake brush against his scaly back as he dodged out of the way, and heard its terrifying snap against empty water.
"..!!!.." The miss caught the emerald colored attacker a bit off guard, turning its head in slight shock.
It had hunted quite a few of Anaxa's species before, but this never happened. It had never missed from such a close distance and it had certainly never seen his prey move in such an abnormal way.
The explanation behind the snake failing to predict such a move was quite obvious- Anaxa's anomalous tail- that skill let him flap it in a way that should have been physically impossible.
The miraculous bending of his bone joint thus let Anaxa dodge the initial strike even when by all accounts the snake had him dead to rights.
"Hiss!"
However just because the snake missed the first time did not mean it was out of the fight or that it was simply going to give up and swim away.
That absurd move had only brought Anaxa a few bits of precious breathing room, it did not bring Anaxa out of the woods.
The awkwardly swimming lizard realized this when he saw the long, sinuous predator collecting itself above in the water, coiling itself up and turning its head once again at him.
It then struck again!
"Shoo!" And this time, the adult snake launched its attack ever faster and fiercer, in order to make sure that Anaxa could not escape its jaw even with that strange movement. It could not live with the shame if it missed such a sure target for a second time.
"...!!!..." Seeing the rapidly approaching mortal threat, Anaxa once again felt a pang of despair.
He was virtually defenseless right now.
Lacking experience in fighting underwater, he had grossly misjudged just how quickly the enemy would be able to regroup, leaving him immobile.
Anaxa's body was still recoiling from his death defying maneuver, yet the adult snake was already coming towards with a fresh package. The speed at which this happened left Anaxa both amazed and afraid.
Now, the way this water snake had managed to pull off such a rapid attack was numerous- mainly it was done so by utilizing the circumstantial and its many inherent biological advantages.
The first and without doubt the most important part of this was of course the fact that the snake had ambushed Anaxa out of nowhere from a prepared position. That naturally put the tiny lizard in an extreme back foot right from the word go.
In fact, given the circumstances, Anaxa had actually done quite an admirable job surviving till now. Despite narrative descriptions of how immensely he was struggling, not even his toughest critique could have rebuked him too much.
The series of actions he took in those extreme times did indeed let him survive the first strike, which was arguably the deadliest- being launched from so near and so unexpectedly.
Then, when that failed, the snake turned to use its large body and vast experience.
As a fully grown adult male, it had a much more powerful physique. So with rippling muscles, it used those powerful sinews to easily absorb its forward momentum into itself and then swiftly change direction.
While the lightweight Anaxa was unable to do so, and left floating helplessly, limbs spread eagled and extremely vulnerable.
The snake's maneuver was further made possible by the fact that it had a long, serpentine shaped body which made it far more aerodynamically suited to fight in the current underwater environment. The decreased water resistance let it move and pick up speed far more easily.
While Anaxa's lizard shaped body…. well if this adult snake was like a sports car, then he was lika a dump truck- slow, heavy and cumbersome.
Then came the matter of experience- as an adult snake, it had hunted underwater for years, coming across all types of prey and certainly also many predators. So who knew how many weird and difficult situations it had faced and how death defying encounters it had survived?
While on the other side, Anaxa was a greenhorn- someone who had hardly wetted his toe before.
This match up was like pitting a trained professional boxer against someone who had never even thrown a decent punch before.
And lastly, of course there was the psychological aspect- this snake was Anaxa's natural predator, and just that knowledge made all its hunting ability appear so much deadlier to him.
It was like god had created this creature with tools specifically geared towards hunting him.
Thus, writhing its body into sharp S shaped curves, the snake dived down from above straight like an arrow, and
"Ahhhhh!" Anaxa was caught in the second try.
Failing to defend himself, the tiny lizard felt a heart rendering pain shoot through one of its limbs as the sharp, razor sharp fangs pierced the delicate muscles straight through, going from one end and coming out the other.
The pain made him roar his lungs off.
Yet… this was actually the best outcome for poor Anaxa.
The emerald snake had originally targeted Anaxa's soft underbelly, wanting to pierce it and finish the job in a single strike. But once again, by the instinctual swing of his tail, Anaxa managed to avoid the worst outcome.
He swerved to the side a bit just as the maw was about to clamp shut, and threw one of his clawed limbs straight into the mouth, wanting to scratch it, or at least kick it away.
The end result was that his feet got 'stuck'.
And as the extreme pain shot through Anaxa, nearly blinding him, out of instinct, he swung his tail at the snake like he was trying to swat away a fly.
"Bang!"
The pebble still wrapped with his tail hit the spine of the watery monster like a meteor and… at once that terrifying bite lost all power.